Tarzan was a national obsession in Israel in the 50s and 60s. At one point, 10 competing, Hebrew lan
Tarzan was a national obsession in Israel in the 50s and 60s. At one point, 10 competing, Hebrew language, bootleg Tarzan series were on the stands from a variety of not entirely legal pulp publishers. Among other things, in Israel, Tarzan became a foremost expert on monsters like mummies and wolfmen, who was frequently consulted for his monster expertise by Mossad. He also opposed “wicked rich Arabs” as well (depictions that a modern reader may find in poor taste), and in one novel, Tarzan even caught and hunted Rudolf Eichmann, a story so popular it got a sequel where Eichmann escapes, and Tarzan has to track him to Egypt.In a few later Hebrew language bootleg novels, Tarzan came to the aid of the revolution of Biafra, Southern Nigeria, an overseas revolution which had enormous popular sympathy in Israel in the 60s, and was depicted very romantically in the media of the time. Biafra was a fascinating conflict because it had some very wild sides. The Soviet Union, Israel, and France supported one side, the Biafra separatists, but the UK, Red China, and Nasser’s Egypt supported the other, the Nigerian government.Interestingly, I haven’t been able to find much information about these online, but at the same time, Tarzan was enormously popular in Syria and Lebanon. According to the Pulp Encyclopedia and Eli Eshed, a pulp historian of the mid-east, they featured Tarzan fighting villainous Jews seeking world domination. Lebanese and Syrian pulps are one of the top things as a collector that I’d most love to find, along with Soviet-era Russian language bootleg Conan the Barbarian novels (remind me to tell you about those sometime). -- source link
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